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Actor puts positive spin on cancer

Television actor Barry Bostwick, who became a leading advocate of proactive healthcare after surviving prostate cancer, will deliver a lecture on that topic April 29 in Tacoma.

As part of the Health Lifestyle Series sponsored by Franciscan Health System and Fred Meyer, Bostwick will explain how he conquered the cancer and encourage men to undergo medical checkups to ensure early detection of the disease  when treatment can be most effective.

Bostwick, who will speak at the Sheraton-Tacoma Convention Center, played Mayor Winston on the TV show Spin City. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997. Since then, the Tony and Golden Globe Award-winning actor received the Gilda Radner Courage Award from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. for using his fame and personal experience to educate men about the importance of medical checkups.

I do all I can to beat the bushes for early screening for men, he said.

Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer diagnosed in the United States, with more than 100,000 cases reported annually. It is also the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in men  more than 30,000 annually, behind only lung cancer.

There is a 1 in 10 chance that a man in the U.S. will develop signs of prostate cancer in his life. The cancer is more common in men over 50, studies show.

Prostate cancer occurs in the tissues of the prostate gland, which creates fluid for semen. Symptoms may not appear until the cancer is well-advanced, but the disease can be treated successfully if discovered early enough.

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